A Lower-decibel Diplomacy

November 21, 2004

The new U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, simply wants to quiet the rhetoric.

Considering the caustic relationship between Washington and Caracas, that's no simple task. Brownfield, nonetheless, is right to pursue lower-decibel diplomacy. The State Department and White House should support him.

For close to five decades, Cuba's Fidel Castro has been Washington's No. 1 nemesis in the Americas. Today, one can make the argument that Venezuelan President Hugo ChM-avez fills that role, and fills it maybe even better.

Castro is nearly 80 and governs a dilapidated economy. ChM-avez is much younger, and oil-rich Venezuela provides him with plenty of cash from historically high petroleum prices to sow anti-U.S. discord.

ChM-avez reaffirmed his grip on power by defeating a recall effort in August. The victory provides him political leverage at home, while the continued windfall from the oil market gives him resources to extend his leftist and "revolutionary" influence to other countries.

Ironically, ChM-avez's biggest economic benefactor is the United States, the very country he pillories in speeches but supplies with every drop of oil America demands. Talk about strange bedfellows.

Brownfield is an experienced hand and is showing the demeanor necessary to represent the United States in divided Venezuela. Brownfield's diplomatic resume includes tours in El Salvador, Argentina and Panama. He also served as deputy assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere prior to being sent to Chile as ambassador three years ago.

ChM-avez may desire to continue verbally abusing the United States, since it wins him points among certain sectors of Venezuela's population. But he needs to do business with America, and that's where Brownfield and U.S. interests may find leverage needed to get the Venezuelan leader to muzzle himself, and maybe deal more even-handedly with the opposition.

Still, if Washington wants to check ChM-avez's influence in the Americas, it's going to have to act more aggressively beyond Venezuela. It must reach out to Latin American neighbors that have grown distant in the past few years.

For all ChM-avez's bluster and oil wealth, Latin Americans aren't going to find workable solutions to their problems in Caracas any more than they did in Havana.

The answers lie in the United States, but the so-called "Colossus of the North" must state clearly its intention to lead a unified hemisphere, not a divided one.